City Hall scandal: officials face disciplinary enquiries
Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga said city officials implicated in the City Hall project would face internal disciplinary processes.
Tshwane metro officials implicated in the City Hall upgrade scandal will face disciplinary enquiries, the metro announced on Tuesday.
In a statement, acting mayoral spokesperson Matthew Gerstner said some of these officials were senior.
“These officials include two senior directors who served in the office of former mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa,” he said, adding the hearings would be next month.
“The City Hall upgrade was tainted by corruption and fraud at the very highest levels, and was forced through and managed directly by the previous mayor’s office. The people of Tshwane were ‘robbed’ of R90 million in corruption and I am determined to see justice done,” said Msimanga.
Msimanga said he laid charges of fraud and corruption against those implicated, and the police’s commercial crimes unit was investigating.
“Those responsible will be taken to task, and when these processes are complete, we will pursue the guilty for every cent that was stolen from the people,” said Msimanga.
On Monday, Gerstner said Ramokgopa’s office flouted the law by not informing national treasury, the city’s chief financial officer and the council of the project.
“Instead, a multi-layered scheme was concocted to award the four-year R138 million contract without proper approvals and budgeting, to a contractor pre-selected by the mayor’s office, at R88 million more than was required for the project.”
“Under this scheme the contractor installed bathroom tiles at four times the market price, and wallpaper at R4 000 a metre, among other inflated prices,” said Gerstner.
The botched work at City Hall was such that walls were painted before the renovations were completed. Attempts were then made to install smoke detectors and cameras, but this work was never finished.
There were also indications that the contract workers put concrete over a wooden floor. In the main hall‚ the seats in the balcony were all stolen as were most door handles‚ made of brass.
On the second floor, holes were drilled into the walls for cables in a way that compromised the structural integrity of the building.
In the old Pretoria council chamber, heritage paintings have been spoiled by careless paintwork.
Tshwane ANC spokesperson Teboho Joala said the DA should not act like it was the first to address corruption and fraud in the municipality.
“We never protected or defended fraud and corruption. In the past five years, we expelled over 500 officials for fraud and corruption and even alerted authorities,” said Joala.
He emphasised that Msimanga should prove without reasonable doubt there was fraud and corruption.
“If a person is found guilty of fraud and corruption, they must know that the ANC is not going to protect them,” he said.
Also read:
Further water interruption in Tshwane
Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
